The Sporting Arena

The debate on whether video technology should be introduced into football has long raged on.

But Thierry Henry’s handball on Wednesday night must surely be a cue for FIFA to act on introducing it, or extra officials, or whatever else they deem fit, to stamp out the cheats.

Already in what appeared to be an offside position along the byline, Henry’s left arm and the ball made contact, and a split second later, he appeared to deliberately scoop the ball back with a flick of the wrist to keep it in play before lobbing it across for William Gallas to nod the decisive goal.

The past few days have seen the vast majority of the footballing world in sympathy for Ireland, and a call for FIFA to do the just thing by calling for a replay in the wake of Thierry Henry’s handball that helped France qualify for next year’s World Cup, and the Irish to watch it at home.

Even the player himself admitted it was a handball and tried to tell the Swedish referee of it.

Right or wrong, it appears now that FIFA are highly unlikely to grant a replay, despite politicians and administrators weighing in. The rule book says the referee’s decision, right or wrong, is final. Maybe they don’t want to set a precedent by granting a replay – there will be no end to it each time something like this happens.

But it’s done. It’s gone.

FIFA must now take the cue from “hand-gate” and do something about it when such incidents arise in the future. The Swedish referee, who has been lambasted even in his own country, may not have seen it, which is why the experiment in the Europa League of having an extra official stationed along the goal line must happen sooner than later.

Video evidence should also be introduced into the game – but only for deliberate cheating incidents, if not we could see the fourth official holding up the board to indicate 10, 20 minutes of added time for all the expected argy-bargy between the teams and officials over every single decision by the referee.

Purists would argue that having technology may smoothen the sport’s imperfections such as human error, which ironically is one of the main reasons why football remains the world’s most popular sport, evoking passions like no other sport across the globe. Animated arguments still abound about whether Geoff Hurst’s second goal against the then-West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final actually crossed the line. And I agree, because this is one of the ways how football continues to generate so much popularity – for better or worse. If everything was fine and dandy, there would be nothing to talk about.

But the way the footballing world reacted to Wednesday’s incident tells us what happened is very wrong and should not be allowed to stand. Its unethical, its unlawful, its unsportsmanlike. It wasn’t a 50-50 incident. This was blatant cheating. A team and an entire nation were robbed of a chance to take its place on the sport’s biggest stage.

Gary Lineker, himself part of the England side that could justifiably count themselves unjustly treated by their exit at the 1986 World Cup to Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal, said players should police themselves, like in golf and snooker, and that referees should also listen when a player admits they committed a misdemeanour on the field. The football laws should enhance and protect the sport, and not restrict it, which is why referees, while there to make sure the laws are applied, should also be allowed to exercise their own common sense and discretion when “blind spots” happen.

But all that is in an ideal world.

In reality, its no longer when once upon a time, sportsmanship and fairplay were prized characteristics. These days, players are more likely to wave imaginary yellow and red cards to get fellow professionals sanctioned.

I won’t sit on the fence here. FIFA should introduce video technology, extra officials or whatever else they come up with, BUT not for every single dispute. Let the “did the ball cross the line or not” arguments continue, because it is such human imperfections that is also precisely why football is so popular and a source of endless debate. Intervene only in blatant cheating incidents, like Henry’s handball, like that Olympic medal winning dive by Liverpool’s David Ngog.

I’m not sure if this will work. But hopefully it can be more effective in stamping out the cheats, but still preserving that imperfect, infuriating yet irresistable nature that is football, or soccer as some call it.

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